Get a taste of Italy with two events this week

SAN DIEGO ---- Downtown's Little Italy district will celebrate
its heritage this week with two events that highlight the sights,
sounds and smells (yes, that means plenty of garlic) of Italy.

As many as 15,000 people are expected at the 17th annual San
Diego Sicilian Festival from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 23. And
on Wednesday evening, more than two dozen of the district's
restaurants and bars will offer samples from the menu at the annual
Taste of Little Italy.

First up today is the Sicilian Festival (formerly called the
Festa Siciliano), a street fair offering Sicilian-style music,
dance, arts and crafts, and food. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., India
Street will be blocked off between Ash and Date streets, and
between Columbia Street and Kettner Boulevard.

The festival's big event is the Sicilian Flag Procession at
11:45 a.m. Local Italian club members will dress in colorful
"paisani" (peasant) costumes and lead a procession of Italian flags
through the streets, accompanied by live music.

Entertainment will be presented on four stages, including
festival headliner Dick Contino, who is billed by festival
organizers as "the world's greatest accordion player," perhaps
because he appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" a record 46 times.
Also on the bill are the Roman Holiday Ensemble, Judy Ciotti &
Friends, the Balboa Park Italian Dance Troupe, The Sicilian Band,
Z-Bop Band, the Screamin' Primas, opera diva Maria Lonzano,
vocalist Elliott Wulff, Al Marchese & the Diplomats of Jazz,
Sicilian Swing, The Sinatra Guy, The Versatiles, accordionist
Smilin' Jack, vocalist Joe Tarantino, Jim Bianchi & Ensemble
and the Pizarro Brothers.

Besides food booths offering all sorts of Sicilian delicacies
---- from thick-crust pizzas to Tarantino's sausage and onion
sandwiches and biscotti cookies ---- there will be a wine
grotto/beer garden, a vendor fair, children's face-painting and
crafts and folk dancing lessons. There will be displays of
Italian-style street-painting, marionettes, variety shows and
circus performances.

Special events this year include a pasta-eating contest at 2
p.m. and a real wedding. Florida native Diana Kolman and her
Sicilian-born fiance, Antonino Tripoli, will be married at the
festival on the Cedar Street Stage at 12:45 p.m., and everyone's
invited to watch. The couple met while Kolman was visiting Italy
last year, and he recently emigrated to the U.S. to marry her.
While looking online for an Italian-American community where
Tripoli could meet other Sicilians, the couple found out about the
Sicilian Festival and decided it would be the ideal place to
celebrate a Sicilian-style wedding in their new hometown of San
Diego.

Parking is difficult, so festa-goers are advised to park at the
County Administration Building at North Harbor Drive and West Ash
Street and take a free open-top, double-decker bus shuttle service
from the north parking lot to the festival site. Admission is free.
Visit www.sicilianfesta.com.

And if the festival has only whetted your appetite for more,
come back for the third annual Taste of Little Italy from 5 to 9
p.m. Wednesday, May 26.

More than 25 Little Italy bars, restaurants and bakeries will be
offering tastings from their menu at the Little Italy Association's
annual event, which usually sells out all of its 750 tickets.

Taste ticketholders will receive a "passport" they can stamp at
each of the stops on the culinary tour, which will include
appetizers, entrees, desserts and specialty drinks. Live music will
be offered at various locations.

New to this year's Taste will be just-opened Bencotto Italian
Kitchen on Fir Street. Co-founded by Milan-born Guido Nistri and
Modena native Fabrizio Cavallini, the sleek eatery specializes in
"pasta your way," where diners can select the type of pasta noodle
they prefer and choose one of eight different homemade sauces,
shareable small plates, gourmet salads, soups and meat and seafood
entrees. They'll be serving up tastes of their handmade gnocchi and
sbrisolona cake.